Estates and Campus Services Update – July

Find out in this edition about the summer activities, progress on the refurbishment of Mercantile, and a reminder that Student Housing and the Estates and Campus Services Helpdesk are now located in Mercantile Building.

Halls all set for the summer

Residential Services staff were exceptionally busy from 10 am on Saturday 24 June when term time student accommodation contracts ended. The team have swiftly checked each room for damage and cleaned the facilities for the arrival of summer bookings from Conferences and Lettings.

The first summer guests, over 500, were checked in from 5 pm on the same day and over 1,000 guests checked in over the following three days. The first groups staying in the university accommodation include a language school, the University’s Up For It summer residential, catering and security staff working at Goodwood and a group of Chinese students on an exchange visit with CCi.

Mercantile refurbishment

Kier is progressing well with phases two and three of the Mercantile Building refurbishment. You will see that the scaffolding is now in place around more than half of the building. Further communication will be sent out regarding planned temporary moves to facilitate the window replacement.

Planning consent has been obtained for a new entrance to the building in conjunction with the planned improvements to the landscaping and the creation of new storage spaces at ground level. We hope that the building will be much more appealing to visitors and staff alike once completed next spring.

Dentistry refurbishment

Kier has started working on the refurbishment of the West Dental Clinic, which closed this week for a duration of nine weeks. We have tried to minimise the impact on car parking availability and student experience for graduation events. Read the last edition of the update to find out more.

Keeping our buildings safe

To ensure the safety of wiring in our buildings there is a five year rolling plan for fixed wire testing for every non-residential building on our estate. The residential building testing is carried out more frequently. If the testing flags the need for any remedial work this is then carried out by the team. Quite often staff are unaware of the improvements as this is carried out overnight so that there is minimal disruption to business activities.

Reminder: Student Housing and the Estates and Campus Services Helpdesk moved

Both the Student Housing Office and Estates and Campus Services Helpdesk are now located in Mercantile House on Floor 5. The contact details remain the same:

Student Housing: 02392 843214, student.housing@port.ac.uk

Estates helpdesk: 023 9284 6677, estates.helpdesk@port.ac.uk

Temporary signage is displayed at the old locations to re-direct users to our new location where they can access the same services. On arriving at Mercantile House Floor 5 landing, anyone wishing to contact either service using the courtesy phone.

Developing the travel plan

Thank you to over 1,700 staff and 1,000 students that responded to the travel survey, providing a wealth of information that informs the development of the Travel Plan, as part of the Estate Masterplan. Find out more in the news article.